Ivanka Trump called out for misquoting an ancient philosopher

Ivanka Trump, daughter of US President Donald Trump, has been faced some online backlash for attributing a quote to the wrong person.

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new," the 36-year-old tweeted overnight, attributing the quote to classical Greek philosopher Socrates.

Ivanka Trump speaking at the Concordia Annual Summit in New York. (Getty)

It's a lovely quote, huh? Shame it wasn't actually said by Socrates.

Yep, people were quick to point out that the wise words in question were coined by a character named Socrates in Dan Millman's fictionalised memoir The Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives.

Presumably feeling the heat, Trump took down the tweet 30 minutes later. She then put it back up, clarifying, "Note: a fictional character not the philosopher".

But because the internet is the internet, people ran with this one too.